Rose Pauson House

Shiprock ruins, 1979

Shiprock chimney, 2010

The Rose Pauson House in Phoenix, Arizona, was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1939 and built 1940–1942.

Shiprock before its destruction

In 1943 the house burned down when a fallen ember from the fireplace ignited a hand-woven curtain on a nearby window. All that remained were the ruins of the foundation and walls. The ruins became a local landmark known as "Shiprock" due to their prominent shape and location. The building was located on a hillock on the present alignment of 32nd Street.

Plans to remove the ruins, in order to extend 32nd Street through the site, created a public protest. The road was extended, but only after the protests resulted in the loss of federal funds intended for the project. The rear chimney mass (serving the master bedroom fireplace-furnace flues), all that remains of the ruins, was moved south in 1979 as a permanent monument marking the entrance to the Alta Vista subdivision of the land.

External links

• Rose Pauson House Ruins American Memory from the Library of Congress
• Collection of photos